Wireless Internet in Pagosa Country
By Suzanne Matthiessen, March 2006

Brothers Justin and Jared Davis run Skywerx Internet Services, a high-speed wireless internet service in Pagosa. Since many people are confused as to how wireless works, we knew our readers would love some clarification.

Suzanne Matthiessen: Would you explain the difference between "Wi-Fi" and the type of wireless high-speed internet service that Skywerx offers?

Justin Davis: Most customers that call in basically get confused about Skywerx internet services as far as the wireless part of it. What we do is called "fixed wireless." It's completely different from Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is "inter-operable," which means that there are different manufacturers who all make Wi-Fi cards and routers, whether it's laptop related or PC-based. It allows them connect to each other – it doesn't matter what brand it is. When people refer to Wi-Fi they're looking at a connection "Hot Spot" in something like a coffee shop or a restaurant where you can go in with your laptop and connect to the internet.

Again, what Skywerx does is a system called fixed wireless. It's proprietary, is not inter-operable; a customer with a laptop that has wireless capabilities cannot connect to the Skywerx network. You have to have what we call a "subscriber unit" which is mounted on the outside of the premises, and we have to actually go into our tower location and program a specific tower node to allow this customer to connect to that access point from the tower. So the two basic things to know are: Wi-Fi is inter-operable; you can connect to it with any Wi-Fi-enabled hardware whether it is a PDA or a laptop or even a desktop, and with the Skywerx services, it's fixed, it's proprietary, and you have to subscribe to our service.

SM: So in other words it doesn't have the same type of portability as far as going to a different town.

JD: Right. It's just like having a cable internet connection or a DSL internet connection. The only difference is that the speeds in the network that we've built locally here and as well as in Farmington, NM, we can do right now up to 10 megs up and 10 megs down to a client's premises, and the fastest CenturyTel can do is 1.5. We're doing some testing right now, which we hope to integrate into our network that is basically voice, video and data, and 30 with meg radios. So an average T-1 connection, the capacity as far as the upload and download speeds is only 1.5 megabytes, and with the new radios we are testing we're looking at 30.

SM: That's massively different!

JD: It's way, way different! We've got some connection speeds right now in town that are just unbelievable. The link that we've put up from Durango that travels on fiber optics has really been great for us because we don't have to do anything with CenturyTel. When they're down we're up, and when we're up, we're up! We guarantee 99.5% up time, as far as our network is concerned.

SM: The security matter is one of the concerns people have with wireless connections. Could you explain that a little?

JD: Most Wi-Fi locations in town are open systems, which means a customer can basically log on to their system. With our service, the security of it is proprietary so you can't just go out and buy a wireless piece of hardware and expect to connect to our network. You can basically go to anybody's house and tap into their DSL line if you go out to their box.

SM: So how does that translate in terms of sensitive information being transmitted over the internet—am I correct in presuming that's not much of a worry?

JD: Exactly. We've got the School District on our network, we've got La Plata electric, the County … we've just set up a wireless data system at 54 megabytes between the new County building uptown and the Courthouse downtown, and of course they transport important information over that. Also, we've got customers in town that are running merchant services over their internet connections through Skywerx. It's extremely secure. You cannot just tap into it and steal people's information.

SM: And Skywerx works across both PC and Mac platforms?

JD: Yes.

SM: As far as your range is concerned, how far around Archuleta County can you reach?

JD: The longest link we have up right now is 54 miles. That's shooting from Durango to Pagosa. Then in town, as long as you have a line of sight to our tower location or somewhat near line of sight—we've got some customers that are 20 miles out of town and could never have dreamed of getting high-speed data services. They work from their homes, and this allows them and enables them to function like they were in a big city.

SM: What about down in the Blanco?

JD: The Lower Blanco area has been a problem for us because you can't shoot through earth yet! We're hoping that the FCC is going to be releasing some new bands as far as unused UHF bands which would allow us to penetrate locations like that and do up to three to five megabytes to customer locations. It is coming; it's just not here yet.

SM: What is the upfront investment to connect to Skywerx?

JD: We charge a one-time installation fee of $150.00, which includes all the necessary equipment and getting the actual wiring infrastructure in place at the premises. We do retain ownership of the wireless equipment as far as connecting to our tower. If something happens to it then we are liable for it. Most radio subscriber units we pay for cost us about $600.00. So after the one-time installation charge our basic residential service starts at $39.99 per month, which gives you about a 768-downlink speed and 512 up.

SM: How long has Skywerx been in business?

JD: It's been a little over two years in Pagosa Springs. We've got a parent company in Farmington, NM that has been around for about six years. We are going to be expanding into Bayfield in mid-March 2006. Another project we are working on—which this IS actually Wi-Fi—is a city-wide Wi-Fi deployment where all the way up and down the Highway 160 corridor all over Pagosa Springs you could be driving with your laptop and have access to the internet.

SM: So let's see then, you've got your cell phone, using your laptop, running a DVD for the kids, and drinking a coffee all while driving up Putt Hill! (laughs)

JD: Actually what we are focusing on is Homeland Security as far as the Sheriff and Police Departments here goes. They will be able to run plates and stuff from their vehicles without having to do a call-in. It will work out well for them, but at the same time we're going to be able to offer a lower-end high speed service where a lot of part-timers or even people that come in for a weekend or so and rent a condo can connect to our network and pay with their credit card for a flat fee for a month's worth of service.

SM: What else is down the road in the next six months to a year?

JD: The wireless mesh system we are working on deploying will be up in about a month to a month and a half from now. We look to continue to increase the capacity of our networks as far as being able to, at some point in time, offer voice, video and data all through the internet which is the way the technology is heading. The prices are going to come down extremely as far as voice and video over the internet as it is so readily available compared to Dish Network and stuff like that. Once we get the network built up to capacity and the technology is available, then you can pretty much say the sky is the limit!


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